1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information providing system adapted to provide information stored in an information providing apparatus to a user in a vehicle via a navigation apparatus and also to the navigation apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information providing system and a navigation apparatus, which provide information about a facility associated with a card when it is detected that the card is ready to be read by card reading means, thereby providing improved convenience to the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has become popular to install a navigation apparatus in a vehicle to receive route guidance for assisting a driver to easily reach a destination. The navigation apparatus is an apparatus capable of detecting the current position of a vehicle by using a GPS receiver or the like, acquiring map data corresponding to the detected current position from a storage medium such as a DVD-ROM or via a network, displaying a map according to the acquired map data on a liquid crystal display or the like, searching for a route to a destination specified by a user, and displaying the retrieved route on the map in a superimposed manner. In such a navigation apparatus, if a destination is input, a search is initiated to determine an optimum route from the current position of the vehicle to the specified destination, and the determined navigation route is displayed on the display screen in accordance with the retrieved optimum route. When the vehicle is approaching a crossing, voice guidance is provided so that a driver can correctly reach the destination. The navigation apparatus also has the capability of acquiring information on traffic congestion or the like from an information center and outputting the acquired information in the form of voice or video data.
However, although the information center that provides information to the navigation apparatus is capable of determining an area (such as an area in the vicinity of the current position of the vehicle or an area close to a destination) for which traffic information should be provided, based on the current position and the direction of travel of the vehicle or destination information, the information center does not have the capability of selecting information in accordance with the desire or intention of the user and providing the selected information to the user. To solve such a problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-302224 discloses a navigation apparatus capable of receiving information about a traffic condition, in an area on a route described in a user information database, from an information providing center, thereby allowing a user to easily acquire detailed information about traffic information in terms of, for example, congestion on the route along which the vehicle is traveling.
However, in the navigation apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-302224, although it is possible to easily acquire information about traffic conditions along a route, the acquirable information is limited to that associated with the route to the destination that is set in advance by the driver, before the driver starts driving the vehicle. That is, the driver cannot obtain various information for conditions that may change from time to time. Recently, in-vehicle navigation apparatus have been provided with a wide variety of functions and are capable of providing an even wider variety of functions by communication with external apparatus. However, there remains a need for an information providing system capable of selecting information that is really necessary (most important) for the user who uses such a navigation apparatus, in accordance with current conditions, and providing the selected information to the user.